Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 1: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822King, Philip Parker
History
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 1: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822
King, Philip Parker
Australia -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Australia
A small mountain sheep weighing from twelve to twenty pounds cost five
shillings: pigs, according to their size, from five to ten shillings
each: a karabow, weighing two hundred pounds, was charged twenty
shillings; and fowls were from four-pence to five-pence each. Of
vegetables we found an abundance, particularly of pumpions and cabbages,
in the market; but, as it was not the season for fruit, we only procured
some shaddocks, a few bad oranges, and some indifferent limes. At the
Chinese shops we procured rice, sugar-candy and coffee, but all these
articles were dear, and of very inferior quality: this supply was,
however, very acceptable to us; and, had we not afterwards discovered
that everything could have been procured at half the price, we should
have been well satisfied with our bargains.
A fleet of Malay proas were lying at anchor in the bay, and two small
trading vessels were in the river, one of which was undergoing a repair
that was very creditable to the shipwrights of this place.
The only exports that the island produces are bees-wax, honey and
sandal-wood; these are purchased and exported by the Chinese merchants,
who are plentifully distributed over the town, and form the greater
proportion of its population.* Its imports are very trifling, for the
Batavian government annually supplies the establishment of Coepang with
all its wants. The port-charges of twenty dollars for every one hundred
tons burden are so exorbitant that no merchant vessels that have not some
particular object in view, will visit this place; so that it has very
little communication with other parts, excepting through the Chinese
traders, who are constantly in motion. In fact it is, to use the
Resident's own words in describing it to me, "a poor place," and it seems
to be the policy of the Dutch government to keep it so, for no vessel is
allowed to trade with Coepang without having first visited either Batavia
or Amboyna, for the purpose of procuring permission.
(*Footnote. M. Arago, in his account of Captain de Freycinet's late
voyage round the world, estimates the inhabitants of Coepang at 1500, of
which 1000 are slaves, and 300 Chinese.)
The town is situated principally on the east bank of the river; which,
rising in the mountains, runs through a torrent-worn course until it
reaches the valley in which the town is built; here the tide meets it,
and at low water its bed is nearly dry: it communicates with the sea by a
shoal bar immediately under a rocky eminence on which the Fort of
Concordia is constructed. This fort, from its favourable situation,
protects the harbour and outer anchorage, as well as commands the town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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